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Fight for Sight awards new grants to support research
Fight for Sight awards new grants to support research
28 February 2008
The UK’s largest dedicated charitable funder of eye research, Fight for Sight, has awarded new grants to support research into retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration, two of the leading causes of blindness.
Autosomal recessive retinitis pigmentosa (arRP)
Professor Shomi Bhattacharya from the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology has been awarded a three-year studentship grant of £92,994 to further research into the genetics of arRP. The research aims to isolate and characterise a novel gene on chromosome 6 thought to be involved in the condition, and to continue identifying new genes for arRP.
Professor Bhattacharya said: “We are extremely grateful to Fight for Sight for enabling us to further our work into understanding autosomal recessive retinitis pigmentosa. Only once we have a much better knowledge of the molecular basis of the disease will we be able to design effective prevention and treatment strategies for the condition.”
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD)
Professor Alan Stitt from the Centre for Vision Science, School of Biomedical Science at Queen's University Belfast was awarded a three-year studentship grant of £91,780 to further his work into understanding the role of chemical adducts called AGEs and their interaction with the receptor for AGEs (RAGE) in causing AMD. It is thought that RAGE may be responsible for inflamation in the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and could predispose the patient to AMD.
Professor Stitt commented: “We will be using modern molecular biology approaches to decipher key pathways in AMD. With more agents that regulate RAGE bioactivity appearing in the market there is real hope for therapeutic intervention in AMD in the forseeable future. We are extremely grateful to Fight for Sight for their vital support of our work.”
Michele Acton, Fight for Sight Chief Executive commented: “ We are delighted to be able to support such vital research into retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration. These grants will also enable promising young scientists to gain valuable experience at leading research centres.”